EDITORIAL: Silicon, Good or Bad for the Watch Industry?
Before I give my opinion on whether or not silicon is good or bad for the industry, it is important that I mention “chronometry” — the science of measuring time accurately. In the late 16th century, when Jost Bürgi invented the cross-beat escapement — which improved greatly upon its predecessor the verge escapement, and allowed for the creation of clocks that were accurate within one minute per day — it was an important feat at the time. It allowed astronomers and scientists to use timekeeping more accurately, which allowed them solve problems previously impossible due to inaccurate timekeeping. After the cross-beat escapement, numerous watch escapement technologies eventually followed: anchor, deadbeat, detent, cylinder, duplex, lever, grasshopper, gravity and co-axial escapements. And even if each subsequent advance in escapement technology, up until the modern day, has made marginally less impact on timekeeping, accuracy in mechanical watchmaking is still of the utmost importance.
